explosion

Through hands-on activities, visitors learn how inkjet printers produce tiny, precise drops of ink. They examine printed paper with magnifying glasses, see a few demonstrations of how liquids behave differently at the small scale, and see an explosive demonstration of how ink is forced out of an ink cartridge.

This is a cart demo about how nanoparticles behave differently, in part because they have a high surface area:volume ratio. Visitors learn that smaller particles have a much higher proportion of their atoms on the surface. Visitors unfold paper cubes, drop alka-seltzer in water, turn potatoes black with iodine, and see fireballs to understand how surface area changes as you get small.